Handover

Wed, Jun 29th 2022 at 12:50 pm - 2:00 pm

President Colin hands over to Frank Quinault

Outgoing President, Colin Mitchell, used the club website, which he maintains, to remind members of some of the many notable talks and events during his year in post. He described it as a ‘stop-go’ year, because of the impact of the pandemic. The early meetings had to be held online before, in mid-August, it was once again possible to meet in person - a welcome return to normal that lasted until a new wave of Covid, in mid-December, necessitated several more weeks meeting on Zoom. The silver lining, however, was the opportunity to welcome speakers from far afield, such as former Rotary Scholar, Eric Motley, who talked about his journey from rural Alabama to his recent appointment as Deputy Director of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. Fortunately, the pandemic had not prevented the 75^th anniversary of the Rotary City Foursomes, last October, or the recent International Golf Tournament, attended by over 300 Rotarians from 27 countries. The Club had also been able to maintain much of its charitable fundraising, including significant donations to the St Andrews Foodbank, Storehouse, and for Ukraine. President Colin concluded his review with a photo from the St Andrew’s Day Torchlight Procession, which the Club had helped to marshal, showing him with a flaming torch, as if handing it on to his successor, before actually investing Frank Quinault with the presidential chain of office. Frank thanked Colin – the first ever to have served a second term as President - for his exceptional service to Rotary, all the more remarkable given that Colin is still on call 24/7 throughout the year as a working farmer.